BOOKS: Robert J. Sawyer

One of the wonders of the World Wide Web is the ability to happen upon a new site. Such a site is www.sfquarterly.net, wherein lies an interview with Robert J. Sawyer.

Now, I am an unabashed admirer of Sawyer's work. I happened upon the Quintaglio Trilogy many moons ago and subsequently have gobbled up everything in long form he's ever written. It helps to have a brother connected to the writing business (he shares accommodations with one of the 30 most influential people in publishing in Canada). That gets me autographed Sawyer books for Christmas and my birthday, as Sawyer's publishing schedule permits.

I'm not actually gaga over signed first editions. I have some. Some very valuable ones. But I ask my extended family to sign the books they give me because I treasure THEIR autographs more than that of the writer. I KNOW it lessens its worth. Don't care. It's not the signing thing that makes the Sawyer book such a treasure, anyway. It's the fact that I'm getting it VERY SOON AFTER PUBLICATION.

As I said, Sawyer's work shines in that it makes me think. He is a writer of ideas. I know he thinks of himself as more than that (read the interview. I think it's illuminating), that he adds characterization to those ideas. But frankly, I read his work FOR the ideas. He joins James Hogan and Charles Sheffield as guys who's work demands slower reading.

Still most of his books give the ol' characterization bit a good effort. It's not that he fails, it's just that it doesn't meet his own self-generated (and maybe self-believed) hype all the time. Sawyer is a hard-working SF professional who pops up on TV and the internet regularly. He's the FACE of SF in this country. In fact, he might even be THE futurist, when it comes to other media looking for 'expert' opinion about what's going to happen five minutes from now.

So, I can forgive him the need to puff his chest so often, as long as he continues to pump out fiction that makes me stop, stare at a page and imagine, what if ...